stealing

while we were in valpo scott saw someone actively trying to steal a car by pulling on the wheels and hubcaps of the car. *please, don't waste your time buying a car alarm here, no one will rescue your car, you'll just annoy me with the sound* passers-by just kept passing by as if it was no big deal. maybe they were scared. scott tried to stop him. he wasn't easily deterred. scott's yelling at him, "que es esto, que es esto?" i wasn't quite sure if we were going to get knifed.

now you have to understand; chile has the most renown police force by far in south america. this isn't some corrupt operation where you'd pay them off, bribe them. in fact, scott and i have heard of stories where people have gotten in trouble for entrapment. once someone is caught commiting even a minor crime or traffic violation, the carabineros have said, "you know, this could go away if..." and then throw the guy in handcuffs when he commits with interest.

theives steal stupider s*%^ too, like decals and such. take a look at this picture taken at bio bio (the place you go to buy stolen crap and get great deals!).


i thought the thieves were less dumb after i saw the price tag (4 mil= about 7 bucks). if someone would pay that amount i could surely see how the pesos stack up!

in other news, scott and i like to participate in something the FBI has started cracking down on recently in the States (purchasing pirated dvds-though certainly through different methods then chile's). i thought it was no biggie here; you line up on saturday and sunday nights next to our metro stop to sift through the collection and off you proudly go with your new american subtitled dvd(s). well apparently it's illegal here too. we watched 4 vendors disappear before our very eyes with their stash as though they were about to get raided. literally piles of dvds, display blankets and personal belongings gone in a flash. i wasn't even sure what alerted them or where they hid so quickly. we were the only potential customers standing around looking blankly (and the only gringos). nothing more exciting ended up happening but i still wonder, would we have gotten in trouble too?

Everybody Loves Some 'Dirty Water'

Responding to demand is what we do around here. You want it, Caitlin and Scott will provide. Here is the music video for the Red Sox victory song, "Dirty Water" as played by the Standells...who knows how long ago. Could the sox have picked a more 'boston' song...played by more 'boston' kids....I think not.

BASICally Red Sox

One of the rites of spring in the Northeast is the first sign that winter is truly beginning to melt away. It is the heat resultant of this event that warms the hearts and invigorates the soul. Yes, that's right folks... I'm talking about opening day of baseball season! Here in Chile, it is next to impossible to receive any type of popular media from the US due to copyright and usage restrictions. Obviously some of this can be circumvented through the illegal downloading of TV, Movies, and music. However, Major League Baseball has always been the model of Uncle Scrooge in guarding their product. Imagine my happiness when I found an American run bar that boasted a satellite signal from the East Coast! Soon after the magic of opening day, I found myself getting geared up for the first real test of what our Boston Red Sox were made of. The Yankees were coming to town for a three game series and all three games were being shown by BASIC bar.

I found myself at the bar on Sunday night, looking forward to the final game
of the series...a series that the Red Sox were winning in dramatic fashion. Friends and colleagues had been cajoled with promises of great food and fun. A new face, Pancho, had joined us as well. He is a roommate of some friends and was eager to share in this promised food and fun, but a little reticent of the baseball game. He'd never seen one or understood the game! Over the next few hours, Caitlin explained the ins and outs of the game while we all whooped and cheered. Pancho quickly took a liking to "Big Papi" David Ortiz and in short order was standing and cheering his every appearance.

As the game headed into the later innings, still tied at one...Pancho got to experience baseball at one of it's greatest heights. With the bases loaded and two outs, the runner on third base took off just as the pitcher began his motion. With disbelief, every person on the field, in the stands and watching at home watched Jacoby Ellsbury steal home!!! It's a play that I grew up dreaming about, but had never seen happen. It's one of the most difficult because of pure physics and the potential game altering consequences. Stealing any base is difficult as the pitcher usually takes a scant 1.3-1.7 seconds to get the ball to the catcher. A catcher can normally recieve the ball and throw it back out to one of the bases in 2.0 seconds. I can't run anywhere in 3.7 seconds and I don't know if you can. The thing that is amazing here....is that Ellsbury stole home! That means he only had, at most, 2 seconds to beat the ball home once it was thrown!! Amazing!
As the game ended and everyone was finishing their food and beer...Pancho asked us if we had a victory song to sing after the team had won. We did our best rendition of "Dirty Water" and called it a night. I can't wait to do it again and bring along the most energetic new fan I've ever watched a game with!

Shopping Mall 2.0

Caitlin and I headed to one of the largest malls in the city called Alto Las Condes. Chileans do malls similarly to the way we do, but perhaps a little bigger and more upscale. In any event, there was a place called Gatsby's Buffet and Cafe. We're talking a cross pollination of Old Country Buffet, The Cheesecake Factory, and a Chophouse. You could choose your type and cut of meat...then have it grilled in front of you. Full selection of other grilled vegetables and assorted items, pizza, a hot table with various fish, potato, casserole stuff. The other side of the room had different pasta salads, appetizers, sushi, and desert. Desert was the kicker with a full selection of pastries, cakes, fresh fruit, and ice cream. To top that off, there was a standalone crepe station with all the fixings and a well uniformed attendant. As I approached this guy and asked how it all worked, he gave me the classic 16 year old dead stare. Only upon further coaxing did he finally grunt out some basic descriptions of what he could make for me. Wearing a chef coat with the words "Gatsby's Culinary Team" emblazoned on the front, I thought to myself as he prepared my chocolate, raspberry, banana crepe....."Teenage food-service help is the same in every country!"
The Chileans so love their sugar... that we saw a couple at the next table drinking out of HUGE glasses of fruit juice while eating their plate of SIX pieces of cheesecake. Now each piece was easily 2x what you might normally picture The table beyond them had one of those over-sized margarita glasses filled up to the brim with ice cream, toppings, desert sticks and shaved chocolate. It's really a wonder that there aren't more overdoses!

We finished our night in the mall with a 3+ hour adventure(painfully full from dinner) in JUMBO, or what they call a 'Hipermercado. This store is a super walmart on steroids. Not only is it just as large, but the quality is out of this world. From a full butchers shop, cheese emporium, bakery and deli...to the department store sections that included fine tablewares, high end cookery, and sprinting track shoes in the sporting goods department. This place was massive, impressive, and suffocating at the same time. There were people everywhere! At no time were you able to just walk down an isle without doing an imitation of the Olympic slalom.

Burned out, we hopped on a bus headed back home finally collapsed after storing up what looks like provisions for a serious winter here in our small kitchen.